Dr. Paul Ortiz currently serves as director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida, an award-winning social justice research center dedicated to fostering experiential learning initiatives and digital humanities as a means of promoting civic engagement and dialogue.

Dr. Ortiz also teaches undergraduate courses in African American and Latinx history, labor history, and social movement theory. He previously taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz and was a visiting professor at Duke University.

Dr. Ortiz has also written two books and co-edited two, which have earned accolades upon publication. Dr. Ortiz has also been honored as a National Archives Distinguished Scholar in 2022, where he will be concentrating in Latinx history for the duration of his appointment. Outside of the realm of academia, Dr. Ortiz is president of the Unity Faculty of Florida Union and faculty advisor for the UF Dream Defenders.

Dr. Kevin Bird currently serves as the Experiential Learning Coordinator at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service. Under his position, Dr. Bird works with and supports students selected for the City of Gainesville Fellowship, the Tallahassee Internship, and the UF Washington DC Internship Program.

Outside of the Center, Dr. Bird has advised students under UF’s Department of Computer & Information Sciences and the Warrington College Professional MBA programs; he has also lectured for multiple departments at Santa Fe College.

Dr. Bird’s research interests include agricultural and industrial labor developments, as well as the Reconstruction period and grassroots organizing approaches that have largely stemmed from the civil rights movement. Dr. Bird holds a doctorate in history from UF, a master’s in religion from Abilene Christian University, and a bachelor’s from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Dr. Steven Noll joined UF’s Department of History in 1992, and since then, has gone on to publish four books. He is currently working on two books, one which covers the 1977 Disability Rights Protests and the other which focuses on the proposed removal of the Rodman Dam. Dr. Noll teaches courses on Florida history, environmental history, disability history, and on the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

Dr. Noll is also an ardent supporter of undergraduate research, having supported six University Scholars on their own independent research projects. Dr. Noll is a triple gator, receiving his Ph.D., M.A., and M.Ed. from UF; he earned his B.A. from the College of William and Mary.